Week 6 Update – doing well, although things tailed off towards the end of the week. I found another library close to home that has printouts for ten cents a page (the standard these days is 25 cents). I’m still having issues with procrastination; that’s something I’ll need to work on. Even with that, I only had to write flash one day this week. I got the first of two assignments this morning, so I’m now booked for work through the first week of March. The part of me that has to pay expenses is thrilled at the thought of substantial income. The writer is sighing and mentally working out schedules. Fortunately I typed a bit early this morning before the assignment came in, so I can write and post this blog with a clear conscience. And now, on to the blog in question…
$$$$
This isn’t the blog I was going to write. It exists thanks to this past weekend, when I had time to write but kept fiddling around. I still got some work done on Saturday; Sunday was the day I wrote flash. In between Saturday evening and Sunday morning something unexpected happened.
Lately my war with insomnia seems to have reached a cease-fire. I only had one instance this week, and it was self-inflicted. After I went to bed Saturday night, I slept okay but had weird dreams. I woke up with an idea for a short story. I looked at the clock—3:17 a.m. Normally I’d just go back to sleep and jot it all down in the morning, but this was a goodie, or at least felt like one. You can’t always trust ideas that hit in the middle of the night. This time, though, just to play it safe, I went ahead and turned on the bedside lamp, got my glasses and one of the umpteen notebooks I keep by the bedside and scribbled down the basics. Then I shut down and tried to fall back to sleep, knowing it would be difficult.
I certainly got that right. That dream reminded me of another story I’d started and abandoned a while ago. That story reminded me of a flash I’d written that might just serve as the opening to another novel. So much for falling asleep. Which I did, towards morning, and this time had a disturbing dream that threw off both my sleep schedule and my attitude. No wonder I didn’t work on anything worthwhile on Sunday. But that’s a whole other therapy session.
Now, I haven’t written a short story in literally decades. Short stories used to be how SFF writers honed their chops before they tackled a novel. I was reading, and writing, SFF back then. There were plenty of markets back then too—magazines, paperback anthologies, printed fanzines. That’s how Stephen King got started. I’ll be dropping his name again shortly. I got maybe a dozen or so stories published throughout the 1980s and ’90s but couldn’t crack the book market in spite of two attempts. Just as well; those books massively sucked. Meanwhile, I had to support myself, so my output dwindled while I dealt with finding and keeping a job that paid a living wage in a rapidly-shifting economy. Also dwindling were the magazine and paperback short-story markets, most of which weren’t paying much better than they had in the ’60s and ’70s. The money was in novels, and breaking in had gotten even tougher.
Then the Internet happened and digital erotic romance came on the scene (if you’ll pardon the pun) and took the world by spicy, sexy, sizzling storm. And that’s how I found myself writing paranormal erotica, and eventually editing same.
Even that went bust eventually, as everybody hopped on the
bandwagon and the market soon became saturated. But the door was open now. If
the regular markets—those still around—don’t want your work, you can put it up
on Amazon or other venues at whatever length you prefer and for however much
you want to charge. Just keep in mind that your success may be long in coming,
or may never arrive. There are tens of thousands of writers out there,
releasing millions of words into the wild with no publisher’s editorial staff
to stop them. That’s some tough competition. However, there’s still Sturgeon’s
Law: “Ninety percent of everything is crap.” Don’t write crap and you’ll be
fine.
For me, though, this isn’t really about publishing. It’s about my subconscious getting scared I might start making actual progress on my current chosen projects, so it’s throwing bright and shiny new ideas in my path to trip me up. I’ve had this problem before. I end up piling too much on my plate, then get discouraged and end up not doing any of them. That could be how the weekend happened.
Well, suck it up, Mr. Subconscious. I know just how I can turn all those ideas to my advantage.
Remember Stephen King? I mentioned him a little bit ago. At one point in time I considered taking a stab at becoming a horror writer. I had ideas and everything, including a pen name to keep the horror writer separate from the romance and SFF writers. The theory was that, as he aged, Mr. King was no longer writing the type of horror stories that had made him famous. Well, he was older now, and sober. Styles and interests change. Good writers do mature. This left a gaping, King-sized hole (if you’ll pardon another pun) in the horror market, just waiting for a new writer to come in and fill the void.
I did try. I started a couple of books using my own weird ideas. Nothing ever came of them. Mostly I learned that I am not and will not ever be Stephen King. But I hung on to the pen name, and I finally found a use for it. This particular alter ego is currently second-drafting my fantasy/detective novel, when Other Me isn’t working on the romance book, or doing the dishes or something.
And those short stories? If you’ll remember, last week I bemoaned my lack of presence on the internet, and how that could hinder me when I went to market my books. This could be the answer. I can sub those stories to online markets, under the pen name’s byline. If that doesn’t work, I’ll self-publish. Those stories might get my pen name noticed—in a positive way, I would hope—and smooth the way when I start looking to publish the fantasy detective novel. Also, I did some checking around and Humorous Horror is a legitimate sub-genre. It’s small and niche but that just means less competition. If I can make some cash with this side hustle, so much the better.
On to this week now. I’m going to try for the basic work schedule: work on the romance in the morning (that’s got a publisher lined up already), the paid work in the afternoon, and the other novel in the evening if I have any gas left in the tank. That one’s on second draft right now, and will require a trip to Philadelphia in the spring for some hands-on research anyway, so I’m not that concerned about it. If/when I get either of those two done, I’ll head back to the series. I’ll leave the stories for my experiment of writing in libraries and elsewhere away from the house. Those will be longhand in a five-subject notebook. I’ve got a ton of those lying around.
And once again the schedule leaves no time for doing housework. Oh darn. Well, something’s gotta give somewhere. See you next week.
No comments:
Post a Comment